Source: Glendale News-Press Leader
Section: Editorial
Contact: FAX: 818-241-1975
Mail: Dan Bolton, Executive Editor, 425 W Broadway #30, Glendale, CA 91204 
Pubdate: March 25, 1998

IN FAVOR OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA 

If your cancer-stricken cousin can't keep any food down because of the
nausea from chemotherapy, shouldn't he be able to use, with a doctor's
prescription, anything that might help him? 

If your daughter has AIDS, and can't keep any food down because of reaction
to her medications, shouldn't she be able to use, with a doctor's
prescription, anything that might help her? If your husband's sight is
deteriorating because of glaucoma, shouldn't he be able to use, with a
doctor's prescription, anything that might help him? 

If your best friend has multiple sclerosis and can't control her muscle
spasms, shouldn't she be able to use, with a doctor's prescription,
anything that might help her? 

The answer seems inarguable to us, and that's why we're in favor of the
tightly controlled use of marijuana for medical purposes. In fact, the
first example cited above is from the real life experience of Congressman
James Rogan. Rogan, the ascendant Republican who represents Glendale,
Burbank and the foothills, tells just such a story, of a cousin wasting
away and given six months to live, who ~ following his doctor's advice to
seek and use street marijuana ~ survived 10 years. 

With that family background, Rogan, as a state assemblyman, was in favor of
a tightly crafted bill that would have allowed personal possession of
marijuana for medical purposes. Now, however, as a congressman, he's said
he supports a nonbinding House resolution stating the House "is
unequivocally opposed to legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes." 

Unequivocally opposed? 

Mr. Congressman, we know you haven't forgotten your cousin, and hope it's
not politics that prompts you to conssider putting your name to something
just because it plays in Peoria ~ or is that Pasadena? ~ and can be
rationalized away later because it's not binding. 

The fact is, medical marijuana can raise the quality of life for many, if
not outright save the lives of some. For the national body of the people's
elected representatives to "unequivocally oppose" such use is
unconscionable.